108.Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley shares her Defence Partner journey - a podcast by Beck Rayner

This week on the Podcast, Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley shares her Defence Partner journey.

 

After meeting at a function and bonding over our defence life experiences I took a chance and asked Mrs Hurley if she might consider coming on the MWL podcast to tell her story. It was the end of the night and she had mingled and chatted for hours and I was the last in a line of eager people wanting a few minutes of her time.

 

I was bursting to tell Mrs Hurley in person that I admired the way she had worked, all those years ago, to bring defence partners together through a typed magazine she had helped establish called the Spouses of Somalia. It was a magazine meant for defence partners and families of those troops on deployment in Somalia of which His Excellency, General the Honourable David Hurley Commanded the 1st Battalion during Operation SOLACE in 1993.

 

Mrs Hurley and I chatted and laughed and took comfort in that sense of shared knowing. That knowing that doesn’t even need to be explained between defence partners. We know what each other has experienced. We know that feeling of missing your person. We know the excitement and adventure that is often balanced with so much unknown and the feeling of new. We know the challenges faced and the celebrations experienced. The leaving and the coming home. The tears. The amazing community. The moving and the starting over. It is that sense that we know even without explanation. We just know.

 

Mrs Hurley and I were engrossed in our conversation so much so that even a tap on the shoulder and a waiting Governor-General wasn’t going to pull Mrs Hurley away. We connected over the fact that the MWL Podcast was like a modern-day version of the typed magazine she had helped put together in an effort to connect and inform defence partners. The Spouses of Somalia magazine acknowledged that defence partners and families played a huge role in the support of the defence member and their successes. It gave those experiencing separation and the unknown a sense of belonging and information.

 

Mrs Hurley may live a very public life alongside the Governor-General but I wanted to ask her about the life that came before the fancy titles. The life that included a defence house in Wagga, posting adventures overseas, emotional reunions and welcome home dinners at Pizza Hut. I wanted to hear about her life and her defence partner journey. I’m honoured to welcome Mrs Hurley onto the Podcast and share her story.

 

 

 

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